Transportation bond appears to have widespread support

    While bond issues have had mixed results in Maine elections over the years, anything related to transportation usually passes by a wide margin. And political analysts don’t expect much opposition to the $100 million issue on the Nov. 5 ballot.
In November 2012, a $51.5 million transportation bond that funded a variety of projects — from repairing highways to dredging a channel at Searsport — passed by a 73-27 percent margin.
A $47.8 million transportation bond passed in June 2010 by a smaller, but still comfortable margin of 58-42 percent.
While some Republicans take a dim view of bonding because it increases the state’s debt, that’s not the case with the Piscataquis County Commissioners. All three GOP commissioners said they will vote for this year’s transportation bond.
“We have only two state representatives in the whole county and the city of Portland alone has eight,” said Commissioner Jim Annis, who served in the Maine House from 2000-08. “So it’s tough to get things done up here. We even had to fight for enough money to fix the road between Dover-Foxcroft and Guilford.”
Gov. Paul LePage and Democratic leaders locked horns last summer over the timing of the whole bond package when Department of Transportation Commissioner David Bernhardt pushed for an August vote on the transportation bond alone.
The governor and Bernhardt claimed that unless the bond went to the voters before fall, there might be delays in getting road repairs completed that were already on the DOT’s 2014 project schedule.
But that didn’t happen. LePage and legislative leaders went back to the negotiating table and came up with a compromise, slimmed-down total bond package of $149.5 million. The $100 million transportation bond includes $44 million for major road repairs, $5 million for secondary roads, $27 million for bridge upgrades and $24 million for ports, rails and public transportation.
The total package is also expected to generate an additional $154 million in federal funds, if passed.
Bernhardt said Monday in an e-mail message that passage of the bond is vital toward “the next construction season of 2014.  Another way to look at it is: without the bond we would have to defer $100 million in projects within our 3-year work plan.”
Maine’s Statewide Transportation Improvement Plan (STIP) for the next three years depends on both federal and state funding for “investments in various modes of transportation infrastructure, including but not limited to pedestrian, bicycles, highways and transit services.”
For all practical purposes, however, counties like Piscataquis, Aroostook and northern Penobscot will see more repairs to existing highways and bridges than construction of bike paths.
According to the city of Caribou’s comprehensive plan, there are 1,125 miles of roadway in northern Maine, excluding Interstate 95, and “approximately 35 percent is 50 or more years old.
The study also indicates that 35 percent of northern Maine’s roads are in good shape, compared to 78 percent in the 1990s; and 45 percent of the roads are in ‘poor’ condition, “a significant increase from the 2 percent figure in the 1990s.” So it’s no surprise that many Aroostook County projects are high on the DOT’s priority list.
These are a few key projects in the STIP including some that are already underway.
Rehabilitation of the Page-Carr Bridge over the Piscataquis River in Abbot — $1.8 million
Resurfacing 4.78 miles of Routes 6/15 in Moosehead Junction Township near Greenville — $1.5 million
Replacing the Boundary Bridge over Prestile Stream in Bridgewater — $2.24 million
Replacing a culvert over Whetstone Brook on Route 11 in Brownville — $1.1 million
Repairs to 3.6 miles of the Caribou Connector, including surfacing, guard rails, fencing and landscaping — $1.1 million
Reconstructing four miles of Route 161 between Caribou and Fort Kent — $6.051 million
Resurfacing 2.59 miles of Route 23 in Dexter north of Dam Street — $1.058 million
Reconstructing .72 miles of West Main Street in Dover-Foxcroft between Sanford and Lincoln streets — $4.27 million
Replacement of the Memorial Bridge deck over the Piscataquis River in Guilford — $7.85 million
Resurfacing 19.25 miles of Interstate 95 between Houlton and Dyer Brook — $7.85 million
Replacement of the iron bridge over the Mattawamkeag River in Island Falls — $3.64 million
Resurfacing 4.73 miles of Route 11 between Milo and Brownville — $1.3 million
Resurfacing 8.79 miles of Route 1 between Monticello and Blaine — $2.32 million
Construction, right-of-way and wetland mitigation funding of Section 11 of the 9.8-mile Presque Isle bypass — $16.625 million
Resurfacing 10 miles of Route 164 between Presque Isle and Washburn — $1.6 million
Federal funds will also play a major role in northern Maine’s road upgrades including the long-anticipated Presque Isle bypass. The new route approved by the Federal Highway Administration is a 7.3-mile controlled-access highway from Route 1 north of Cambridge Road in Westfield that crosses the Aroostook River and reconnects to Route 1 south of Brewer Road.
State Rep. Robert Saucier of Presque Isle said that he supported this year’s transportation bond when it came up for a vote in the legislature. “The funds for the (Presque Isle) bypass are a different pot of money that was authorized by Congress,” Saucier said. “But Aroostook County benefits from highway and bridge improvements anywhere in the state because we always travel south to go places.”